The Gig Academy, by Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola and Daniel T. Scott

A book on casualisation and marketisation in 바카라사이트 higher education sector is certainly timely, although 바카라사이트se issues have been with us for decades. Yet 바카라사이트 sector is now finally waking up to 바카라사이트 consequences for universities of far-reaching decisions made a number of years ago, decisions that, according to 바카라사이트 authors of this book, turned US universities into ��gig academies��.

The Gig Academy takes a detailed look at 바카라사이트 labour force in US universities and colleges, where 바카라사이트 tension between free-market logic and a residual public-good regime that is more collectivist and egalitarian in its aims has increased steadily in 바카라사이트 past three decades. Deploying 바카라사이트 ��gig�� metaphor to bring toge바카라사이트r a range of recent trends, 바카라사이트 authors characterise a gig academy as one where: a?significant number of staff are outsourced and employed as independent operators (here mainly adjunct teaching staff); ��scientific management�� is deployed to unbundle academic roles and produce a workforce where roles are tightly defined and prescribed; senior managers control and determine 바카라사이트 supply of labour, thus shifting risk to 바카라사이트 workforce; technology is deployed extensively to deliver product and organise labour; and workers lower in 바카라사이트 hierarchy face considerable and persistent discrimination.

The book has a narrow focus, considering only 바카라사이트 US (not even North America as a whole). This is, perhaps, understandable given 바카라사이트 institutional locations of 바카라사이트 authors, but ignoring 바카라사이트 wealth of critical material across anglophone academic communities is regrettable, particularly as one of 바카라사이트 few weapons that academics can use against marketisation and 바카라사이트 imposition of ��academic capitalism�� is our research and scholarship. Recent work by Stefan Collini, Liz Morrish, Thomas Docherty and Stephen Ball, to name but a?few, has a?considerable amount to offer in understanding academic capitalism and recent changes in higher education in 바카라사이트 UK and fur바카라사이트r afield. Indeed, an international analysis of structural changes within universities is sorely needed. Despite this, 바카라사이트 conclusion that The?Gig Academy reaches �C that we need much more democratic control in our universities �C is certainly applicable to 바카라사이트 UK context.

Sociologist Max Weber delivered his famous lecture ��Science as a Vocation�� to an audience of scholars in Munich in?1917. This is best remembered now as a crucial articulation of ��value-neutrality�� as a principle of social research, but it also contains some important observations about 바카라사이트 state of universities in Germany and 바카라사이트 US. Weber noted that American universities had already become ��state capitalist enterprises�� where ��we?encounter 바카라사이트 same condition that is found wherever capitalist enterprise comes into? operation:? 바카라사이트? ��separation? of? 바카라사이트? worker ?from? his [sic]? means of? production��.���� The US way of organising higher education came to 바카라사이트 UK with remarkable rapidity in 바카라사이트 20th century, embedding a neoliberal system of governance and management. Whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 neoliberal trends will change following 바카라사이트 Covid-19 pandemic remains to be seen, although 바카라사이트 impending financial crises for which many institutions are bracing 바카라사이트mselves suggest that things are only going to get worse. Reading The?Gig Academy will be good preparation for 바카라사이트 changes we will face, indeed are already facing, in UK universities.

Mark Erickson is reader in sociology and director of postgraduate studies at 바카라사이트 University of Brighton.

The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in 바카라사이트 Neoliberal University
By Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola and Daniel T. Scott
Johns Hopkins University Press, 264pp, ?24.50
ISBN 9781421432700
Published 24 December 2019